Creating smiles for 15 years

Susan Vaughn

Friday

Nov 22, 2013 at 2:00 AM

Several dozen people involved in dental care on the Cape and Islands came together Wednesday afternoon at Alberto’s Restaurant in Hyannis to celebrate 15 years of collaboration, now coordinated through the Oral Health Excellence Collaborative.

Susan Vaughn photo

CREATING SMILES – These three women related the 15-year history of the Oral Health Excellence Collaborative at a program celebration Wednesday. They have been instrumental in developing a wide range of dental services on the Cape and Islands. They are from left, Sarah Kuh, director of Martha’s Vineyard Health Care Access Program; B.L. Hathaway, the Collaborative’s coordinator; and Liz DiCarli, a Falmouth Hospital nurse who has been involved in the program since its inception.

Several dozen people involved in dental care on the Cape and Islands came together Wednesday afternoon at Alberto’s Restaurant in Hyannis to celebrate 15 years of collaboration, now coordinated through the Oral Health Excellence Collaborative.

Three women who have been actively involved outlined the history of the programs that began in 1998 when there were no dental services in community health centers or schools and no funding for them. Liz DiCarli, a nurse at Falmouth Hospital, who was a volunteer initially and involved in the needs assessment project that identified the lack of affordable dental care, related the various forms the programs took.

They started with the Ellen Jones Community Dental Center in Harwich and expanded into programs with names like Tooth Tutoring, Vineyard Smiles, Open Wide, Polished and SeaSmiles. DiCarli lauded leaders of the programs, such as Dr. Dan Mahoney and other dentists who formed Cape Cod Dentists Care.

Sarah Kuh, director of Martha’s Vineyard Health Care Access Program, told how the various efforts formed into the Tri-County Collaborative for Oral Health Excellence in 2008, later changed to the current name. She told of subsequent programs and services in various venues geared especially to children, the underinsured, low-income seniors and disabled adults.

The collaborative’s mission is to create a regional oral health system with 100 percent access to emergency, preventive, restorative and specialty dental care through collaborative efforts of many individuals and groups.

B.L. Hathaway, coordinator of OHEC, stressed the collaborative efforts of all the people involved in the Cape and Islands’ many oral health programs. She noted how they started with no affordable dental services, and said, “By next year, we will have 33 publicly subsidized operatories (dentist chairs).”

Hathaway, who is stepping down from her job, was given the Daniel G. Mahoney Cape Cod Dental Society Award for her years of service, presented by Dr. Michael Buckley.

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